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Hello

We are two Aussie girls travelling to the US in early January. We will be
flying into LAX and want to visit tourist areas of Los Angeles, Hollywood,
Anaheim and San Diego. We want to visit the theme parks and zoos such as
Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm, Seaworld, San Diego Zoo
and Wild Life Park. We also want to see the famous Hollywood sign, the
Stars Walk of Fame (or whatever it is called), Rodeo Drive and a shopping
trip to Tijuana, Mexico. Can someone please help us with the following
questions:

1. how long should we be spending in each destination?
2. what is the weather like in CA - I've read it's 20C, however does it
rain a lot? I'm hoping it's similar to Qld, Aus in winter - "beautiful one
day, perfect the next".
3. would you recommend hiring a car or catching public transport?
4. are there any other destinations that we should see while in CA?

We also want to visit Las Vegas to experience the lights and sights and take
a trip to the Grand Canyon. How long should we stay in Las Vegas for? We
obviously want to see the Strip and catch a show (any recommendations?).
What else is there to do in Vegas that you would recommend?

All up, we are spending 5-6 weeks in the US and want to see as much as we
can but not to the point where we are exhausted from our trip.

We need all the help we can get - travel brochures and travel agents just
don't have 'all' the answers - I've learnt that local input is the key !

Thank you very much in advance !!!

How much time do you have? You could easily spend two or three days a
Universal Studios and not see everything there, and that's definitely
true of Disney Land.

Absolutely hire a car. Public transportation in Southern California is
available in some areas, but it is not very good. A car gives you much
more flexibility in that area than you could ever have by relying on
public transportation.

For Las Vegas, you can do without a car if you just want to see the
lights and the Strip. The Strip is only a five minute drive from the
airport and there are plenty of public transportation options in that
area. For info on Las Vegas, a good web site is
http://www.cheapovegas.com and a very helpful newsgroup just for Las
Vegas is alt.vacation.las-vegas

The weather is hard to predict, but it should be comfortable in the Los
Angeles area. Bring light sweaters for Las Vegas. See the web site at
http://www.weather.com for weather info.

You might want to rent a car after you are finished seeing the sights in
Las Vegas and tour some of the surrounding areas such as the Valley of
Fire, Hoover Dam, and some of the other national parks. With 5-6 weeks
of time, you should be able to do all those things without rushing.